Summary

The article discusses the ethics and transparency of writers promoting their Medium referral links for a commission.

Abstract

In an open letter to writers on Medium, the author addresses the practice of earning commissions through referred memberships. The author points out that while it's exciting to earn passive income, the wording used by some writers to describe the commission as "small" is deceptive. The article highlights that the commission is actually 50% of the membership price, net of payment fees, and is recurring for the duration of the membership. The author suggests that a more transparent approach would be to clearly state the percentage of the commission and its recurring nature. However, the author acknowledges the potential negative impact of such transparency on the readers' willingness to use the referral link. The cognitive bias of readers who prefer not to use referral links to avoid benefiting the referrer, yet are okay with the corporation profiting, is also discussed. The article concludes with the author providing their referral link while emphasizing that using it supports their writing without any extra cost to the reader.

Opinions

The author believes that describing the commission from Medium referrals as "small" is misleading.
The author argues that the commission is substantial, considering it is 50% of the membership fee, minus payment processing fees, and is recurring.
There is a suggestion that full transparency regarding the commission percentage might deter some readers from using the referral link, as they might feel it is unfair to the writer.
The author reflects on the irony of readers' reluctance to use referral links to avoid enriching individuals, while the same readers do not object to the corporation keeping the full amount without paying a referral commission.
The author provides their referral link with a justification that it helps support their writing efforts, emphasizing that there is no additional cost to the reader for using the link.

OPEN LETTERS

An Open Letter to Writers Earning a Small Commission

If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn a ‘small’ commission.

Members referring members by Ben White on Unsplash

Dear writers earning a small commission,

Yes, referred memberships are an exciting new feature of Medium. I, too, wish I had 100 referred members and made $227.00 of ‘passive’ income monthly.

The elusive and illusory passive income that would enable us to lie on a sunbed in Hawaii all day, drinking cocktails and getting bored to death doing nothing. (But that’s for another story.)

Yes, promoting your referral link in your articles is cool.

What is NOT COOL, however, is the following wording:

If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn a small commission.

To me, this wording is deceptive.

Look at the following table taken from Medium’s help center.

Screenshot by Author. Source Medium Help Center.

In absolute terms, $2.27 might be a small commission.

In relative terms, getting 50% of the membership price net of payment fees doesn’t qualify as a small commission.

Considering that we’ll receive the 50% every month for as long as the membership is active, we can safely say it’s NOT a small commission. At. All.

I guess a perfectly clear wording would be

If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn 50% of your membership price, net of payments fees, for as long as the membership is active.

But we don’t live in a perfectly clear wording world. And people should do their due diligence. Also, this wording would likely discourage (some of) the readers from using the referral link. They might feel like 50% isn’t fair. And we don’t want that to happen, do we?

On a side note, this cognitive bias of ours is amusing. When presented with referral links, we often prefer not to use them because we don’t want that <insert pejorative term of your choice> to earn money doing nothing. And yet, we’re OK with the corporation behind it making more money by not paying the referral commission…

Anyway.

Here’s my referral link. Of course. How could I leave you without it?

Join Medium with my referral link - Smillew Rahcuef

Did you know you could write whatever you want here?

smillewrahcuef.medium.com

And, remember, if you sign up using my link, there won’t be any extra cost for you, but I’ll get a commission to support my writings.

Referally yours, Another referring writer

Smillew is a writer, a tweeter, and a serial masturbator. He also enjoys yoga and meditation. Some he does well, some not so well, but he still tries them all.

We Need a Random Button on Our Medium Profiles

This isn’t a random article about Medium.

medium.com